Monday, September 30, 2013

Here's a quick update on the dice mechanics as they stand today. Thanks to zedturtle on RPG.net for helping me keep it 0 centered. In an upcoming post I'll go into the probabilities involved.

I'm still working on Tribute Alpha (The simpler version of the game), but it's coming along. This was a result of that work.

Dice and Reality Level

In every campaign, there will be a choice of which dice to use, depending on the reality
level desired. Reality Level is mainly about how well weaker challengers
can potentially do against stronger ones. The firmness or looseness of
the probability curves. Additionally, special events such as
"knockback" can be keyed to different die sizes.

d4s- Mundane Reality Level. The range of results is small, and skill is more important than randomness.

d6s- Heroic Reality Level. Most people will play at this level, I
imagine. The range is a little bigger, and weaker opponents have a
slightly better chance of standing against stronger one, but skill is
still very important.

d8s- Pulpy Reality Level. More swingy than Heroic or Mundane,
with a higher possible range of results. You can fly higher or sink
lower here. Action is about swift reversals. Legendary adventure.

d10s- Cinematic Reality Level. Things you might see in an action
movie happen regularly. People can be thrown through plate glass
windows almost unscathed, can ride explosions to safety, etc.
d12s- Over-the-top Reality Level. Skill is least important here,
and action contains a lot of randomness. Good for cartoons or certain
comic books. Actions are regularly taken that would be considered
impossible at other Reality Levels.

Attribute Ranks

Attributes are measured on an infinite logarithmic scale, with 0 being
considered average for a human. The effective range possible in a
campaign will vary.

Effect Ranks

Effect Ranks are independent of Attribute ranks, and range from 1-5. 1
being a minimal effect such as dealing light damage, and 5 being a total
Effect such as killing a foe in one blow. When you are successful in a
Test, you deliver the Effect at the rank you bought it at, unless the
dice modify the rank upwards or downwards. Effects can optionally have
several sub-Ranks for the various Features they contain, like damage,
range, duration, etc.

Making Tests

When you make a Test with no modifiers for aptitude, situation, or handicaps,

1. Roll 1 white "FOCUS" die, and 1 black "BURDEN" die.

2. Subtract the rolled value of the black BURDEN die from the value of the white FOCUS die.

3. Add the final value of your test to your appropriate Attribute's Rank.

4. Compare the result to your opposition's Result.

5. If your result is higher you Win the test, if your Result is lower you Fail, and if your results are equal, you Match.

FOCUS Dice

When you are above average at something or the situation make
something easier, you receive up to 5 additional white FOCUS dice. Add
these dice to the 1 that you would otherwise roll for an unmodified test
. This gives a possible total of 6 white dice. Roll them and choose the
die with the highest value as your FOCUS die, and then perform steps
2-5 as you would for a Test without modification.

BURDEN Dice

When you are below average at something or the situation makes something
harder, you receive up to 5 additional black BURDEN Dice. Add these
dice to the 1 that you would otherwise roll for an unmodified test.
This gives a possible total of 6 black dice. Roll them and choose the
highest value as your BURDEN die, and then perform steps 2-5 as you
would for a Test without Modification.

You can have up to 6 FOCUS dice and 6 BURDEN Dice at once, for a total of 12 dice to be rolled.

Profit and Waste

Profit

Profit can be gained when you Match or Win a Test. Any FOCUS dice other
than the first one that meet or exceed the highest BURDEN die are
considered Profit.

Profit can be added to the Rank of any Features in the Effect you're
Testing. When an Effect has multiple Features, you can divide your
Profit dice among those Features any way you like.

Profit can't raise an Effect or Feature of an Effect's final Rank beyond 5.

Profit can also be used to activate certain bonus Effects altogether,
such as knocking a foe backwards when hitting them with a club.

Waste

Waste can apply when you Match or Win a Test. If you Fail a Test, Waste is irrelevant- nothing happens.

Any BURDEN dice other than the first one that meet or exceed the highest FOCUS die are considered Waste.

Waste is subtracted from the Rank of any Features in the Effect you're
Testing. When an Effect has multiple Features, you can divide your Waste
dice among those Features any way you like.

Waste can't lower an Effect or Feature of an Effect's final Rank below 0 (Non-existent).

Waste can also be used to activate negative Effects or complications in
the scene such as breaking the table that you're fighting on top of, or
starting a fire.

Getting Both

It is possible to receive both
Profit and Waste to your action when the result of your highest FOCUS die equals the result of your highest BURDEN die. Profit can cancel Waste out on a 1 for 1
basis at your option, but you can also apply both to separate Features
of Effects. An example of this might be adding profit to the damaging
Feature of an Attack, but subtracting from its duration or taking a
consequence.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

I know I posted yesterday that I might not be posting anything for a while, and that still stands. However, I came across a great article that relates to my thinking with Tribute.

In short the article is about Free Will, and this line in particular stood out for me:

"Free will is an advanced form of the simple process of controlling oneself, called agency."

See, I have a friend who doesn't get the concept behind the Powers in Tribute. Much like the rest of the concepts in the game, I chalk it up to a failure to communicate on my part. I'm still working on that.

Powers are all about agency, which I define broadly as "the right to determine one's own fate". As far as I can tell, any type of in-game effect has a relationship to agency.

Before I saw the article today, I was writing and I made this list of refined definitions for the Powers. They're not in the final format I'd use for expressing them in the rules because they are mainly for me at this stage. Still, they may be of some interest. Here they are:

ATTACK- The right
to reduce the agency of a Target by applying an Effect to them without
giving them a choice.

CONSTRUCT-The
right to create an Effect with its own agency.

IMPLEMENT-A tool
that provides a type of agency to you that you otherwise wouldn't have.

INFLUENCE-The
right to persistently alter the types of agency available to Targets within Reach.

MANEUVER-the
right to give yourself more agency by allowing you to apply an Effect to
yourself.

SHIELD- The right to protect your own agency by responding
to Effects that seek to alter it.

TRUST- The right
to give more agency to a Target by giving them the choice to benefit
from an Effect.

These definitions are what will hopefully allow me to have freeform Effects in Tribute Alpha.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Just a quick update to let any readers I have left know that I'm still working.

I'm currently reexamining some of my core mechanical assumptions, which if I were to post about them prematurely, might just lead to frustration to anyone reading. I'd likely have to recant anything I posted now.

I will say that I'm working on a way to build a simplified version of Tribute, possibly without Functions. This would likely work as a Basic version of the game; you'd add Functions for the Advanced version of the game. This would allow the basic version of the game to use plain English for Effect descriptions if I can pull it off.

I'm toying with calling the basic version "Tribute Alpha" and the advanced version "Tribute Omega". I know that Alpha tends to mean "Work in progress" in software circles, but I like the pairing.

I'm not sure if I can pull this off, honestly. It will require some significant changes to how the numbers work. I know I haven't really gotten into them on the blog, but I have always had a basic idea of how they would interact, and things like what kinds of ranges I'd need. All of that would have to change if I went the way I think I might be going.

For example, it's looking like Powers will have to have Ranks- or maybe not. I have a lot of thinking and discussion with game design friends to do.

There may be some dead air on the blog for a while, or it might come to me in a flash. I'll have to wait and see. But trust me when I say that I'll be working on this set of problems constantly.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

I thought I'd do a post on modeling a character that may be
familiar to many readers- Katara from Nickelodeon's Avatar : The Last
Airbender.It's a show I enjoyed
watching with my son, and I imagine many readers have some fondness for it- it
was very good.

I hope that this constitutes fair use, as it's sort of a fan
fiction. Of course, if I get any complaints, I'll take it right down.

Throughout the process of designing the game, I've
frequently thought of the various types of "Bending" from the two
Avatar series when I thought about Element interactions. Different styles of
Bending will use different Functions more or less prominently; for example,
Earthbending uses a lot of BLOCKs,and BRACEs while Firebending uses a lot of VOIDs.

I chose Katara for this example because she's the main
Waterbender in the series. Waterbending is a very versatile form of Bending on
the show, having features of each of the other 3 types. I didn't choose to
write up Aang because of the sheer amount of work it would entail. As the
Avatar,he does everything everyone else can do, better. If I get a good
response, I might do other characters, but I really need to be working on the rules.

Also, I didn't get into blood or plantbending, because I
decided to write up an early version of Katara, around the time she met Toph. There
may be continuity issues here or there, but I was working from memory and this site. Using the page on waterbending, I tried to model most of the
techniquesI found there. The ones I
didn't model were the ones that were either mechanically redundant or so minor that they
didn't actually do anything useful (based on the reference page).

Additionally, I didn't model the few minor FOCUSes, or the
BONDs and DRIVEs listed inside the HOUSEs. What's listed there is good enough;
a simple numerical rating covers the effects.

The goal with Tribute is to only model what is immediately
needed and interesting mechanically.

Katara's Character
Sheet

HOUSE

"Body"

"The World"

Frame Type

Name

Container

ACCESS: +3

COUNTER: 0

FORCE: 0

Rank: 20

Effects:

CHANNEL: "Physical"

CHANNEL: "Water"

FOCUS: "Dancing"
[3d]

HOUSE:
"Mind" [20]

POOL: "Water
Source"(sweat) [-20]

HOUSE

"Mind"

"Body"

Frame Type

Name

Container

ACCESS: +3

COUNTER: +2

FORCE: +2

Rank: 20

Effects:

DRIVE: "Become
a Better Waterbender." [+4]

FOCUS:
"Midwifery" [3d]

HOUSE:
"Soul" [20]

HOUSE

"Soul"

"Mind"

Frame Type

Name

Container

ACCESS: +3

COUNTER: +3

FORCE: +4

Rank: 20

Effects:

"Waterbender"

INFLUENCE (Soul): {}CHANNEL: ("Spiritual")

BOND: "Love of
Kya (Deceased Mother)" [+5d]

BOND: "Love of
Hakoda (Father)" [+5d]

BOND: "Love of
Sokka (Brother)" [+5d]

BOND: "Love
for the Southern Water Tribe" [+4d]

BOND: "Honor
the Spirits" [+3d]

BOND:
"Affection for Aang" [+3d]

BOND:
"Friendship with Toph" [+2d]

BOND: "Hatred
of the Fire Nation" [+4d]

BOND: "Hatred
of Zuko" [+5d]

CHANNEL: "Water"

FOCUS:
"Waterbending" [+5d]

FOCUS: "Waterbending
Mastery" [+2d]

FOCUS:
"Healing" [+3d]

.

Waterbending FOCUSes

These FOCUSes wouldn't need to be on the character sheet; they could be written up in the setting bible for reference.

I didn't model the CHANNEL "Water", as Naming it
is enough to begin manipulating it in Tribute. The POOL "Water Source"
is simply a POOL contains the CHANNEL "Water" (Its substance is the
CHANNEL). Its logarithmic Rank represents the amount of Water in a bending source
(Rank 0 represents a human sized portion of water). Some techniques require a given minimum amount
of water to be available.

Even though the bending FOCUSes contain a large number of
techniques- an approach which may seem overwhelming, it might help to think of
them as you would "spells" in a typical fantasy setting. A wizard's
spellbook would have dozens of such spells.

Notice also that I broke waterbending in to "Waterbending"
and "Waterbending Mastery". This is because the in-setting fiction
reserves certain techniques for so-called Masters. I simply defined a "Waterbending
Mastery" with prerequsite NEED of "Waterbending" +5d (5 dice).

I didn't plug any numbers into the Effects (Rank, for now,
is represented by a "#" sign.), but hopefully there's enough
information in the Expressions to get the point across.

Note: A new aspect of the notation is to mark each Feature with a letter like so: A. , B. ,...etc. This shows the order in which the effects are applied if it matters in play. If two Features share the same letter, they are simultaneous. If one step is interrupted in some way, the subsequent steps fail.

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About Me

I'm a writer and game designer. I've had two RPG books published for the d20 System- the Morningstar Campaign Setting, and The Complete Guide to Fey. I'm working on a new generic game system called Tribute.

I sometimes do stand up comedy at the open mic level, but I haven't done it in a while.